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A concerted effort to raise Ontario's highway speed limits by 20 or 30 km/h has been straight out turned down by the provincial government.

The group stop100.ca has drawn a flurry of media attention and netted thousands of votes via its informal polls over the past few days.

Those polls and others show overwhelming support for a new, higher Ontario highway speed limit of 120 or 130 km/h.

The province's 400-series highways' 100 km/h limit is one of the slowest in the world, the group argues; it was lowered from about 112 km/h (70 mph) in the 1970s because of the energy crisis, they note.

But the government refuses to budge, citing safety concerns, reports the Canadian Press. Ontario Transportation Minister Bob Chiarelli says "speed is a factor in 20 percent of fatal car accidents" in the province.

Ontario has some of the safest roads in North America, he adds, and maintaining the current speed limit will help keep it that way.

Chiarelli waved off suggestions that most drivers already do 120 km/h on highways. Police regularly issue tickets to drivers going that fast, he says.

Stop100.ca launched their Facebook page mid-February; it has over 700 likes.